Die Welt braucht Wald – braucht die Welt Forstwirtschaft? | The World Needs Forest – Does the World Need Forestry?

Abstract

This essay investigates in a provocative way of the question whether foresters and forestry are actually still necessary for forest tending and conservation. The first section briefly describes the various points of view on forest and forest management. The second section sets out the importance of the forest and its functions. The third section illustrates the insufficiencies of forestry, in particular the problematic issue of world-wide forest destruction which can be explained by a lack of values, poverty and increasing corruption. The fourth section points out the trends within forest development (certification,forest carbon trade, intensification of chemical pulp production and nature conservation), in which classical forestry occupies a rather passive than active role. Finally, the fifth section (‹Quo vadis, Forestry?›) consists of reflections on how forestry and the foresters could overcome the dilemma of passivity, in order to again occupy a leading role within forest development. It is important to expand the very narrow forestry circle and develop and realise a forest vision together with others.